Rock *was* born of the blues, so I don't really see how you can skip over it.

Yeah. Without blues, there would be no rock.

All hard rock is based on the blues. Blues is, of course, also the root of Jazz.

Country music actually has a lot of blues in it also.

Of course, Gospel is also a huge influence and that rarely gets noted. But all those early uptempo R&B songs are basically gospel structures.

There's also a surprising latin influence that sort of courses through the music (the Bo Diddley beat is actually a latin beat. Same for "Louie Louie").

But yeah, blues is the big river that American music flows from.

You go back far enough and folk, blues, and gospel are pretty much the same thing.

Incidentally, I reviewed a documentary about music in the Civil Rights Movement that played on PBS's American Experience the other night called Soundtrack For A Revolution: [link]

One of the interesting facts that came out of it was that much of the music we associate with the movement was brought to some of the organizers by a couple of white folksingers. True, some of the songs were spirituals, some were folk songs, and some were blues songs, but in the early part of the 20th century, those kinds of genre distinctions were primarily made by the race of the singer and how often they mentioned Jesus.

those kinds of genre distinctions were primarily made by the race of the singer and how often they mentioned Jesus.

This dynamic was noted in the Greil Marcus edited Stranded in the chapter on the gospel songwriter Thomas Dorsey (not the Dorsey Brother), where the white writer was working for Civil Rights and some young black kid asked, "How come you keep changing the word "Jesus" to "Freedom" in all these songs?"

Ha! I've actually had Thomas Dorsey in my mix lately.

You know what you want but didn't realize it until right now?

The Clash board game. (Download it and print it out! You can play at home.)

Where'd you see them, Trudy?

May 22nd and 23rd at Terminal 5 in NYC and then May 6 - House of Blues Boston, May 7 - Tower Theater Philly, May 8&9 - Sayerville NJ, May 10 9:30 Club Washington DC.

Here is Frank's epic dive. [link] He's an insane little monkey. He rolled in the air, landed on his back, and kept his guitar up. His feet were in the fourth row, his head in the sixth.

His chief of security, Mehdi (picture Rock Hudson Persian, muscular, and about six foot five) climbed in while another guard held his legs. The poor man didn't even flinch when Frank launched...

I got him a Thank You card, pink with a butterfly.

"Dear Mehdi, Thank you for not killing Frank. I really would have missed my favorite band. If you had dropped the little Monkey on his head no one would have blamed you. In fact, this is Jersey -- we all know by kindergarten how to say, "I din' see NOTHIN'. It was a tragic accident. Poor kid musta fell".

He laughed. The man is gorgeous.

Low plays Toto's Africa

Actually pretty awesome!

One of the interesting facts that came out of it was that much of the music we associate with the movement was brought to some of the organizers by a couple of white folksingers. True, some of the songs were spirituals, some were folk songs, and some were blues songs, but in the early part of the 20th century, those kinds of genre distinctions were primarily made by the race of the singer and how often they mentioned Jesus.

Yep. Pete Seeger (indirectly via the Highlander Folk School) taught the Civil Rights Movement We Shall Overcome. He took out a "defensive" copywright on the song (so The Lion Sleeps Tonight didn't happen all over again I guess) and gives away his share of the rights to various Civil Rights orgs.

The folk/punk connection is a lot of fun too. I was raised Folkie and came to Punk later in life -- only to find various front men from punk bands (Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Tim Barry of Avail, Kevin Seconds of 7 Seconds) picking up acoustics and touring solo. I meet these dudes and we sit around talking about the Weavers.

Tao Seeger sighhhhh (Pete's grandson and my one true love) and I have discussed it as well. He loves folk but "sometimes you just want to rock". His own solo stuff isn't particularly punk sounding, but its certainly DIY and, dude, the guy blows banjo feedback in his shows.

"Rock 'n' Roll is folk music pretty much... cause... it's for folks!" [link]